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BARE COLUMN: State group will help pay storm-water control costs
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Published: January 24, 2009
One of the common complaints leveled at the green movement is the cost of implementing sustainable as opposed to traditional disciplines. The Community Conservation Assistance Program, a project of the N.C. Division of Soil and Water Conservation, will go a long way toward putting that argument to rest.
The program will reimburse up to 75 percent of the cost of implementing best-management practices as they pertain to storm-water management. For the homeowner, this means that such projects as installing rainwater cisterns, backyard rain gardens and wetlands, impervious surface conversion, riparian buffers and other storm-water control measures.
The CCAP was modeled after a program developed for the agricultural community -- the NC Agricultural Cost Share Program. The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources discovered that nonpoint source pollution was the primary source of degradation of North Carolina freshwater streams and rivers. Sediment from agriculture, construction and urban runoff is the most common source of freshwater-system degradation. The CCAP aims to address pollution originating from runoff in suburban, urban and residential nonpoint sources.
Numerous resources
Linda Birdsong, the community conservation coordinator for Forsyth Soil and Water District, said that the program has resources to assist with a variety of projects. We spoke about what the project would provide in the example of a homeowner who wants to construct a rain garden. A rain garden is small depression in the backyard landscape that is typically planted with native plants that will gradually absorb water that would have flooded into the storm-water system, carrying its burden of sediment.
Birdsong said that in the instance of a backyard rain garden, the program would calculate the size of the garden as dictated by the volume of the roof, design the garden plan, including recommended plants, and calculate the amount of sand, compost and soil needed to change the permeability of the soil.
She would then return after the homeowner had installed the garden to make sure that the guidelines had been followed and submit the cost for reimbursement. It usually takes two or three months after completion before the homeowner has his or her check in hand.
North Stokes High
Wendi Hartup, a natural-resources extension agent with the Forsyth and Stokes Agricultural Extension Agency, guided the installation of a large rain garden at North Stokes High School. This garden captures the runoff from a parking lot, more than an acre, as well as that from a driveway and grassy field. Hartup has advised Birdsong on several projects.
The program will not cover the cost of simple rain barrels, but cisterns of 250 gallons and up are covered. Birdsong said that the CCAP would again calculate the volume and construction needs for such a project.
The UNC School of the Arts installed two 3,000-gallon water-storage cisterns under the program, for use in irrigating landscape and in vehicle upkeep.
Another area where the program could help would be correcting badly eroded slopes and stream banks by contouring and planting with vegetation to stabilize erosion. Correcting these problems can assist in controlling flooding, habitat and property loss, and filtering polluted runoff.
Impervious-surface conversion is also considered a best-management practice and qualifies for assistance from the program. Birdsong said that one residential situation, where an impervious surface was replaced, involved a concrete patio that sloped toward the house, directing and pooling water at the house foundation. The patio will be replaced with sod and the soil contoured to direct water away from the house. A planting area will help absorb the water down-slope.
■ A rain-garden workshop will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on March 17 at the Forsyth County Agricultural Extension Service building, 1450 Fairchild Road . Resources available through the CCAP will be discussed. The cost is $5, and participants should register by calling 703-2843. For more information on the CCAP, call Linda Birdsong at that number or e-mail birdsoll@forsyth.cc.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features,
Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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